IT certification opinions...

[bramagedained]

Just a small FYI, the CompTia certs are no longer lifetime as of 1 Dec 10.

For some reason, the Army is a fan of their stuff. Despite being almost a joke, N+ and A+ might be good to have.

For my job, which is mostly maintenance/repair of highside equipment we do
some of the networking too. By 2012 we're all supposed to have at least N+ and Security+. It's strongly encouraged to have CCNA as well.

As far as I know, all of the jobs that touch the network require a Secret clearance at the very least. Those they will pretty much hand out to anyone that isn't a fellon or currently has a warrant somewhere. The investigation isn't super time consuming and there's no polygraph. On the other hand, my Top Secret investigation took 6 months, they sent investigators out to 3 different states to talk to people I listed as aquantences and I was polygraphed.

DOIM is the main IT "group" the Army goes through, ITT is the most prevalent contractor I see here in Afghanistan.

Networks above Secret are managed by a government agency. Almost everyone that works for them is prior service military.

Contracting with the Army overseas=$$$. Every one of them I've talked to over here makes more than 100K/year. Even the generator mechanic down the road.

I know as soon as my contract with the Army ends in August of next year I'm going to be a contractor doing the exact same job I do now.